PowerBuilder 2017 R2 Build 1769

SQL Server 2012

I am working with a fairly old application that has been using the SQL Server ODBC Driver (SQLSRV32.DLL) for many years. We wish to upgrade to a newer driver so we can utilise some of the features unsupported by this driver, e.g TLS encryption of data connection.

I have installed the ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server (MSODBCSQL17.dll). Most things work just fine, but there is some embedded SQL that doesn't. it turns out it is due to the way the parameter datatypes are being calculated.

If I do a SQL Profiler trace with the old driver I can see FMTONLY is used and it calculates the variable is a VARCHAR(2), as evidenced in the next sp_prepexec call.

With the new driver FMTONLY isn't used, instead it uses sp_describe_undeclared_parameters which returns VARCHAR(8000) and then uses TEXT in the next sp_prepexec.

This causes things to blow up as TEXT can't be compared to VARCHAR in the SQL Statement.

I'm not sure what PowerBuilder is doing and what the ODBC driver is doing. I assume this is all because of the driver change, but I have a few questions someone may be able to answer:

* Am I right in assuming it is not PowerBuilder that decides whether a variable type in embedded SQL is varchar or text, but rather the ODBC driver itself? i.e. Is PowerBuilder calling sp_prepexec or is the driver?

* Anyone run across this kind of thing before and can give me some hints of moving between drivers?

* Is there any way of telling what is sent by PowerBuilder and what is sent by the driver?

Thanks for any help :)